


Aliens: The Tech Consultant

by TigerMultiverse



Series: Adventures in the Multiverse [3]
Category: Aliens - Fandom
Genre: Aliens 3 doesn’t happen, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Injury, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Ellen Ripley is a badass, Ellen Ripley's A+ Parenting, Eventual Happy Ending, Gen, Gun Violence, Some Humor, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:53:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25488784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TigerMultiverse/pseuds/TigerMultiverse
Summary: The Aliens movie but with the addition of Charlie Nash, the young technology consultant who is more than she looks.
Relationships: Dwayne Hicks & Original Character, Rebecca "Newt" Jorden & Ellen Ripley
Series: Adventures in the Multiverse [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1635058
Kudos: 1





	Aliens: The Tech Consultant

Most people would find it odd that a 15-year-old is a tech consultant for some marines, but that’s everyday life for me. 

My name is Charlie Nash, and I’ve been a tech consultant for Apones marines since I was 13 and graduated high school early. I’m pretty close to everyone on the team, but my favorites are Hudson, Hicks, and Vasquez. 

Me being the tech consultant means that I don’t go into battle like everyone else, I’m just off on the sidelines along with a Lieutenant leading them on. 

But I was still taught how to use a gun and knife if I ever needed to defend myself. 

Today had started normal, I woke up, had breakfast, did my own thing on my computer, and met up with Hicks and Apone along with our new Lieutenant, Gorman. Except, today we had a new mission, a rescue mission along with a consultant to LV-426, a colonized planet that suddenly went silent. The sudden lack of communication kind of had something to do with the new consultant, Ellen Ripley. I had read her file and it turns out that she and her cat had been a part of the Nostromo that disappeared 57 years ago and they had been frozen all that time. 

Ripley and her crew touched down on LV-426 and one of the crew members had contracted a parasite that burst from his chest and turned into this thing that killed all of her crew. It was called a Xenomorph and they came from these eggs on an alien ship on LV-426, and it is believed that the colony made contact with the ship and there are a ton of these Xenomorph things. 

So that’s how my day went. 

The next day was when we boarded the Sulaco and went into hypersleep until we got to LV-426. 

I woke up from hypersleep and immediately wanted to go back to sleep. But, I stirred in my t-shirt and boxers and forced myself to open my eyes and sit up. Everyone was also awake and getting up from their pods. 

“They ain’t paying us enough for this, man.” I heard Drake groan as he sat up. 

“Not enough to have to wake up to your face Drake,” Detrick said to him, to which I couldn’t help but smile at. 

“What? Is that a joke?”

“Oh, I wish it were.” 

“Hey Hicks, man you look just like I feel.” I looked over at Hicks and saw that he did look terrible, in fact, we all did, me especially. 

“Fuck this…” I whispered to myself. 

“Alright sweethearts. What are you waiting for? Breakfast in bed? Another glorious day in the corps. A day in the Marine Corps is like a day on the farm- - every meals a banquet, every paycheck a fortune, every formation a parade. I love the corps!” Apone walked along with our pods as he spoke, and I couldn’t help but groan as I stood and listened to his speech. 

“Good lord…” I whispered. 

“Man, this floor is freezing!” Hudson said, jumping a bit to emphasize his point. 

“What do you want me to do? Fetch your slippers for ya?” 

“Gee, would you sir? I’d like that.” 

“Look into my eye. Fall in, people. Come on. Let’s go.” Apone pushed us as we all got up and walked to the locker room. 

“I hate this job.” Frost groaned. 

“Amen…”

I zoned out and walked to my locker, briefly watching Vasquez do pull-ups before opening my locker and putting my clothes on, which consisted of a plain blue t-shirt with a black long sleeve under it, a hoodie with a NASA logo on the back, my dog tags, jeans and converse shoes. As I got dressed, I heard some of them talking about Ripley, but didn’t pay it any mind. 

“Hey, Charlie? Have you ever been mistaken for a boy?” Hudson often liked to joke around with me like that, seeing as I was more of a tomboy and my brunette hair was a bit curly and short, a couple inches below my ears. 

“No, have you?” I shot back at him and smiled when everyone began laughing and some patted my back and ruffled my hair. 

I walked to the table with my tray of horrible tasting breakfast, stopped to get silverware, and sat down at the table with Ripley, Burke, Gorman, and Bishop. I would have sat at the table with the marines, but there wasn’t really any room. 

“Hey Bishop, man. Do the thing with the knife.” I looked over and saw Hudson hold a knife out for the android to take. He refused at first but gave in after a lot of goading and took the knife. 

Bishop put his hand on the table, but then Drake came up and held Hudson while also putting his hand on the table under Bishop’s. The marine yelled as the Android began to stab the knife between each finger at a crazy speed and stopped after a couple of seconds. Bishop gave Hudson back his knife and returned to our table. He offered us cornbread, which only I and Burke took. 

I zoned out and ate my breakfast until I heard Ripley speak. “You never said anything about an Android being on board, why not?” I didn’t get why Ripley had a problem with it until I remembered that the Android that was a part of her crew went crazy and tried to kill her. 

I zoned out again but was snapped back to reality when I heard a tray clatter to the ground. I looked up and saw that Ripley had knocked the tray Bishop had offered away. 

“Just stay away from me Bishop, you got that?” 

Wow. 

I hoped she sorted that out soon, cus she had to work with him for this mission. 

We resumed eating and when we finished, we went out into the loading dock. I kept to myself by doing shit on my personal computer while everyone else talked. A few minutes later, Apone, Gorman, Burke, and Ripley came onto the deck. Everyone stood at attention while I just sat and put my computer away as everyone went to sit down where I was. Hicks and Hudson sat on each side next to me, the latter ruffling hair which I really hated. 

“Morning, marines. I’m sorry we didn’t have time to brief you people before we left Gateway-” Gorman started but was cut off by Hudson. 

“Sir?”

“What is it, Hicks?” The Lieutenant mistook him for the corporal. 

“Hudson, sir. He’s Hicks.” He pointed to the man on my left. 

“What’s the question?” 

“Is this gonna be a stand up fight, sir, or another bug hunt?” Hudson almost sounded bored as he chewed on his gum. 

“All we know is that there’s still no contact with the colony and that a Xenomorph may be involved.” Gorman explained. 

“Excuse me, sir. A what?” 

“A Xenomorph.” 

“An alien, Frost.” I told him. 

“It’s a bug hunt. What exactly are we dealing with here?” Hicks switched his attention from the man to Ripley, I already knew what she was about to say but I’m polite so I also looked at her. 

“Ripley?” Gorman gave her the reins. 

“I’ll tell you what I know.” Ripley stepped forward as she began explaining. “We set down on LV-426. One of our crew members was brought back on board with something attached to his face, some kind of parasite. We tried to get it off. It wouldn’t come off. Later it seemed to come off by itself and die. Kane seemed fine. We were all having dinner, and, um - it must have laid something inside his throat, some sort of embryo. He started - um, he -“ 

“Look man. I only need to know one thing–where they are.” Vasquez cut Ripley off and made a finger gun with a smile on her face. She clasped Drake's hand, “Yo, Vasquez. Kick ass.”, and gave the bird to Hudson when he said something but I wasn’t paying much attention.

“Fuck you, man.” 

“Anytime, anywhere.”

“Are you finished?” All the marines' attention drew back to Ripley as she took a step forward and leveled Vasquez with a hard look. “I hope you're right. I really do.” 

“Yeah, okay, right. Thank you, Ripley. We also have Ripley's report on disk. I suggest you study it.”

“Because just one of those things managed to wipe out my entire crew in less than 24 hours!” Ripley turned back around. “And if the colonists have found that ship, then there’s no telling how many of them have been exposed. Do you understand?” 

“Anyway, we have it on disk, so you better look at it. Any questions?” 

Hudson raised his hand with a shit eating grin on his face. 

“What is it, private?” 

“How do I get out of this chicken shit outfit?” I had to stop myself from laughing at that, knowing that I would get in trouble, but a smile that I didn’t bother to hide made its way on my face. 

“You secure that shit, Hudson.” Apone snapped. 

“Alright. Now listen up. I want this thing to go smooth and by the numbers. I want D.C.S and tactical database assimilation by 0830.” Everyone, including me, groaned and scoffed at that. “Ordinance loading, weapons strip and drop ship prep details will have seven hours. Now, move it, people!” 

Gorman walked off while we scoffed again but did as we were told. 

I didn’t have to do much heavy lifting, but my brain was hurting from what I was doing. 

At one point, I heard laughing and looked up to see Apone and Hicks chuckling at Ripley, who was in a loader and carrying a box. It was pretty impressive. 

Later, when I was almost done finishing something up, Ripley had come over to where I was sitting. 

“Hey there.” I looked up and saw her take a seat next to me with a smile. 

“Hi.” I greeted her back. 

“What’s your name?” 

“I’m Charlie.” 

“Nice to meet you Charlie.” Ripley was really nice and pretty, I liked her. “What are you working on?” 

“The drop ship prep details, my report. I’m the tech consultant, so I do the tech things.” I explained to her. 

“You must be really smart then, to be a tech expert on a marine team.” 

I smiled brightly. “Yeah, I am.” 

Later on, we were ready to board the A.P.C and drop down on LV-426. The marines got their gear on and weapons loaded in the locker room, I was standing by with Ripley and Gorman when the marines and Apone ran out and lined up in front of the double door. 

“Absolutely badasses! Let’s pack 'em in! Get in there!” Apone opened the door and the marines filled in, me, Ripley, Burke, and Gorman walked in behind them. 

I sat in my usual seat and was gonna start strapping myself in but Hudson beat me to it, making sure I was in tight and secured. 

Once everyone was seated and strapped in, Bishop drove the A.P.C into the drop ship cargo and the ramp closed. We waited as Ferro counted down for the drop. 

“We’re on an express elevator to hell! Going down!” Hudson smiled, he had always gotten a high from drops. 

“Hell yeah!” I cheered as a couple others cheered and whistled. 

Just then, time hit the mark and we dropped down. Hudson cheered and I saw Ripley lean her head back and close her eyes. A couple moments later, Ripley spoke. 

“How many drops is this for you Lieutenant?” I looked over and saw that he was tense in his seat and gripping the arm rests. 

“38. Simulated.” He looked like he was puke. 

“How many combat drops?” Vasquez looked unimpressed by him already. 

“Uh, two. Including this one.” 

Wow. I rolled my eyes. I had more drops than him, both in combat and simulated. 

“Jesus.” 

“Shit, man…”

Ripley looked towards me. “How about you, Charlie?” She smiled. I pondered for a moment before answering. 

“About 140 combat drops, and 94 simulated.” I said, some of the marines smiled at me proudly and I saw Gorman roll his eyes with a huff. 

“All right, let’s see what we can see.” Gorman began looking at everyone’s helmet cameras. “Everybody online. Looking good.” I noticed before he did, Drake's camera was malfunctioning a bit, making the image on screen look fuzzy. 

“Drake, check your camera, there seems to be a malfunction.” Seeing as I was sitting next to him, I lifted my fist and hit his camera, making his head rock a little. Drake glared at me halfheartedly while I just smiled. “Okay. Pan it around a bit, good.”

“Check it out! I’m the ultimate badass! State-of-the-badass art! You do not wanna fuck with me.” Hudson unstrapped himself and began joking around with the others, making some cheer or whistle. “Check it out.” He smiled and made his way to stand in front of Ripley. “Don’t worry Ripley, me and my squad of ultimate badasses will protect you.” He gestured to the other marines and I smiled, I liked it when he joked. Hudson then started showing off their heavy hitting weapons with his usual shit eating grin on his face until Apone broke it up. 

“Knock it off Hudson!” He barked. “Alright, gear up! Two minutes people. Get hot.” 

We all unstrapped from our seats and the marines started to get ready, and I saw that Hicks was asleep and I laughed quietly. “Somebody wake up Hicks.” Apone ordered, and I went over to the Corporal and shook him awake. 

Soon, we came into view of the beacon and saw the atmosphere processor. Ferro started circling it and me and Ripley got a good look. 

“That’s the atmosphere processor?” Ripley asked. 

“Yep. That’s it. Remarkable piece of machinery.” 

“It’s completely automated.” I added from my spot next to her. 

Ferro began circling the complex on Gorman’s orders, giving us a better look at it. 

“The storm shutters are shut and the structure is intact.” I observed, from Gorman’s side. 

“And they still have power.” Ripley added. 

Moments later Ferro touched down briefly so Bishop could drive off and she took off again. The ride was pretty shaky, the ground was rough. 

“Ten seconds people! Look sharp!” Apone ordered the marines. “All right. I want a nice, clean dispersal this time.”

Bishop stopped the A.P.C and the marines filed out into the pouring rain to the entrance. I looked at their cameras and saw that the door was locked, I took my laptop and started to get the bypass ready to send to Hudson. The first squad went up when it was noticed that there wasn’t anything nearby. 

“Nash, Hudson, run a bypass.” Apone ordered and Hudson began setting up the device for bypass, once the second squad moved up and the private connected the final wires, I opened the door for them and they moved in. 

The place was a wreck, cables ripped out of the ceiling and water dripping, metal torn. It was all pretty eerie, it was quiet and there wasn’t anyone or anything in sight. 

“Sir, are you copying this? Looks like hits from small-arms fire. Uh, we got some explosive damage. It’s probably seismic survey charges. Are you reading this?” Apone told us, and he was right. It looked like the aftermath of a battle. They headed up the stairs. 

“All right. Hicks, Hudson, use your motion trackers.” Gorman told them and they did as ordered, and the trackers showed no one in sight. 

“Nothing. Not a goddamn thing.” Hicks sounded suspicious, alert, and cautious when realizing they were alone. 

“Quarter and search by twos.” 

They split off down each hallway, I kept going from one screen to the other each couple seconds thinking I would see something, but there was nothing. I looked back to Hudson’s camera when I heard beeping, and saw that there was something on the tracker. Carefully, him and Vasquez entered the room and saw that it was just a mouse. 

“Jesus.” I breathed out, that gave me a scare. 

They moved on until Ripley spoke. 

“Wait. Wait, tell him to-” she began, and I saw what she was looking at, Hicks’ camera showed something. 

“Hicks, back up and pan right. Towards the floor.” I told the corporal with my headpiece. 

He did as told and we got a clear view of the floor, it was melted in places. 

“Seeing this alright? Looks melted. Someone must have bagged one of Ripley’s bad guys.” 

“Acid for blood.” Burke whispered to Ripley. 

Vasquez looked up and we saw that much of the ceiling was melted, there must have been a lot of that acid. 

“Sir, uh, this place is dead. Whatever happened here, I think we missed it.” Apone told us. 

“All right, the area is secured. Let’s go in and see what their computer can tell us.” Gorman sighed. 

“Wait a minute. It’s not secure.” 

“The area is secure, Ripley.” 

She looked scared, and I can’t imagine what she must be feeling now. Bishop pulled up to the entrance and we got out and went in, but Ripley stayed out for a moment longer. 

We walked down the hall and walked through a hole in a barricade. Drake said that they put up barricades at the wings and welded the doors shut, but it didn’t hold. 

“Last stand.” Frost said, almost like he was joking. 

“Shut up, Frost.” I snapped at the man and followed the others through the med-lab to operations. 

We started walking past this separate room and everyone stopped, I looked in and paled at what I saw. There were six parasites in tubes, curled up and seemingly dead. Ripley was frozen in place, and flinched when Hicks put a hand on her arm and stepped into the room. 

Those were the parasites she was talking about, I thought absentmindedly. Burke was heading to one of the tubes, but I opted to stay close to Ripley. When Burke got his face real close to one, the parasite tried to jump at him and pressed against the glass. We all jumped. 

“Looks like love at first sight to me.” Hicks joked, and Burke looked like he didn’t appreciate it. 

“Two are alive, the rest are dead.” Bishop said, picking up a clipboard and going through the pages and began reading. “‘Surgically removed before embryo implantation. Subject Marachek, John J., died during the procedure.’ They killed him taking it off.” 

“Fuck.” I said, and Hicks looked at me with a smile on his face which I couldn’t really reciprocate. 

“Wanna keep one, you always wanted a pet Charlie.” Drake joked and I just elbowed him in the gut, despite the armor he gave out a grunt. 

“Yo Hicks. Think we got something here.” We went over to Frost and saw that there was something moving towards us. It wasn’t one of us. 

Drake moved in front of us and we began going towards it, going slow and steady. I tightly held my gun in front of me as we kept walking, ready to shoot anything that came at me. We were halfway down the hall when something jumped out from the boxes and Hicks reflexively shot some rounds. 

“Fuck!”

“Hold up! Ripley, Charlie.” Hicks has us come forward. We kneeled down and saw that it was a little girl in the grate. She was young and dirty, maybe nine years old and she looked terrified. 

“Hey, it’s alright. It’s alright.” Ripley’s tone was calm and quiet, a way you would speak to a child, so she wouldn’t spook the girl anymore than she was. “Come on.”

“Just grab her, Corporal.” 

“Be careful.” 

Hicks started to slowly reach into the crawl space for the girl, bust she was trying to edge away. 

“Don’t be afraid. Come on. We won’t hurt you.” 

“Come our honey.” 

“I got her!” 

Hicks has grabbed the girl's arm but she bit his hand, forcing him to let go. Quickly, she moved under the grill and we almost couldn’t see her. 

“Don’t let her go!” 

“She’s under the grill!” 

“Put the gun away, Drake!” 

“Keep back, keep back. Don’t scare her!” 

“Grab her, man. We’re gonna lose her!” 

We had found her but she climbed down a shaft before any of us could grab her. “Damnit!” Ripley took the light from Bishop and followed after the girl. I threw my gun on the floor and grabbed a light from Hicks, following right after them. 

I eventually came into a small room filled with junk, and it seems like she was living here. I saw that Ripley had the girl in her arms, she was limp and staring off in front of her. When Ripley saw me, she handed me a plaque. It was the girl smiling, clean as she looked at the camera, and it said her name was Rebecca. 

Later, we got Rebecca out of the floor and into Operations, Dietrich, Gorman, and Ripley were with her making sure she was okay, well, physically at least. 

I was at the computer, looking for the other hundred colonists. Thankfully for the P.D.T’s, that should be easy but they weren’t showing up on the map. Just then, after checking up on Rebecca, Gorman came over to where me, Hudson, Hicks, and Burke were to see what was going on. 

“Smoking or non smoking, Lieutenant?” I joked, not taking my eyes off the screen as Hicks and Hudson smiled while Gorman rolled his eyes. 

“Just tell me what you're scanning for, Nash.” 

“P.D.T’s–personal data transmitters. Every colonist had one surgically implanted. We should read them out and find them, but so far none.” 

After a few minutes of searching with a little help from Hudson, I found them. 

“Hey! Get over here, assholes! I found them.” I yelled out to them. 

“Are they alive?” Gorman asked. 

“I don’t know, but it looks like all of them. At the processing station, sub level three, under the cooling towers.” I told them, zooming in on the floor plans. 

“Looks like a goddamn town meeting.” Hicks said, taking a drag of his cigarette. 

“And I have a feeling they aren’t talking about parking spaces or rude neighbors.” I said sarcastically. 

“Let’s saddle up, Apone.” Gorman walked off to the A.P.C. 

“Aye, sir. Alright, let’s go, people. They ain’t paying us by the hour. Let’s go, head em’ out!” Apone barked at us, and we all headed to the processing station.


End file.
